Format: Guardian To Mend and Defend
by Somerandomuser
Summary: He was fake. He hated their love, because it wasn't his to accept. He would act on it. "Enzo Matrix" throws himself away from the world he once knew. Meanwhile, Mainframe begins to feel the loss and "Enzo" looks toward righting his mind.
1. Chapter 1: Mpegs and Matrix

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Reboot, or it would be on TV right now.

--

_They've never considered it… even once._

Enzo sat back in his room, an old horror .mpeg playing on the screen in front of him. It was late night, and he was in one of his worst moods ever.

_And I never told them. _

As if to rebuff himself, he thought…

_They never even considered it! Not Dot… not Bob… not Matrix… not anyone!_

They never considered that he had lied when they asked him the question.

When he had come into existence, this clone of Matrix as a young child… this Enzo who was more Enzo than the original… they all immediately assumed that he was the Enzo… before Enzo met AndrAIa.

He never spoke up, because with things going to so crazy… he'd thought that AndrAIa was somewhere safe, and no one ever mentioned her to him. Ever. And by the time that things had been explained to him, he had known that she was gone. Because AndrAIa was right there, older, next to the real Enzo Matrix, who had forsaken his first name.

Even at the age of one-oh as he'd been back then… he'd understood something about AndrAIa. She was great. She was his friend, so nice, so caring and kind to him… and so beautiful. What he didn't understand… is why did his body look like it did before he met AndrAIa… while his mind remembered until after that? It was a curse. And all of the others were quite free from blame on not talking to him about AndrAIa… they thought he had no memory of her. Looking down at himself, having just barely reached one-oh this time… he wished he hadn't.

Why had he not gone as far back mentally, as he had gone back physically? Were any of the others brought back experiencing this sort of anomaly? If they were, how would they know? They were the only copies of themselves. Enzo could only frown. It was unfair. It was really unfair. He could not bear to look at Matrix and the more developed version of AndrAIa. He couldn't bear to think of his friend.

But no one knew.

He closed his eyes and laid back, the rest of the cycle would be uneventful, and it would be pointless to go through it. He could only hope to fall asleep. When he was asleep, he at least could see her on occasion, in his head. A binome screamed on the screen and the User—having somehow escaped from his Gamecube—followed the Virus into the room.

He woke very quickly.

He wanted to yell. For some reason, he was just so _angry_ tonight. Normally, he could spend his night as he always did, being depressed and reining the depression safely in personally, so that no one would suspect it the next day. But tonight… tonight felt bad.

The old horror .mpeg continued to play on the view screen in front of him, but he could no longer spare the strength to continue watching it. As always, the nighttime was the worst. During the night the light of day could not mask his emotions nor could they hide his memories. During the night, he had to think and feel. While to the eye he may seem like a mere boy of oh-one, he inside, had memories of being an older person. He had memories that he shouldn't have.

It was called Seer's Syndrome. When the system reboot had taken effect, so many people were brought back to life from the attack on the second island, and he, since his elder counterpart was in AI mode, was brought into the world.

An estimated ninety percent of the returning sprites experienced the Seer Syndrome. Though they looked younger than they were when they died, they remembered their deaths. For him, he remembered up to the point where he had lost the game and got taken from the system. That was when his memory ended.

He told Dot and Enzo Matrix, and Bob, that he was quite fine and didn't suffer any such problem. This was a lie. The younger Enzo remembered everything. He remembered his life with his close friend AndrAIa for instance, or the fact that toward the time when Bob had originally vanished from Mainframe that he had begun to love her.

But now she was older, and she was with the original Enzo. The Real one. They were aged by their second in the Games. He however was a fake, a clone, nothing more than compilation of memories. He was no more real than this cheesy horror .mpeg which he violently kicked closed as the old feelings of anger and confusion overwhelmed him into despair.

Tonight… tonight he would do more than despair. He couldn't live this fake life anymore, he couldn't stand to see Matrix and AndrAIa together, nor to see Dot look at him as if he was her little brother. It was a lie, a lie he could no longer stand to live. Enzo quickly stood and moved to his window, pushing open the window and, breathing deeply, escaped into the night.

It wasn't with a clear head that he did this, no, anything but. It was manically, trying hard to get away from this source of pain. So manically he did this that he managed to bust his window with his foot on his way out, setting off an alarm. The building's outside lights flared to life and he dashed out of reach of their gaze rapidly. A moment later, he heard Dot calling his name from his opened window, and looked at her over his shoulder as he ran.

To her credit, she didn't scream in anger or anything. This was pure fear and anguish.

As for Enzo? He ran.

He had left this home during a moment of depression and fear and confusion. However, he really didn't regret it.

Running down the street was perhaps the stupidest thing he could do, all things considered, because it wasn't long before he heard the sound of an approaching car. He tensed on reaction, and made to dive behind a bush, but a voice reached his ears, causing him to freeze in place.

"Hey, Enzo," Matrix's voice echoed up the street and Enzo knew now that if he ran, it wouldn't matter. Matrix was, even if not completely, nearly a guardian. This was enough to give him certain abilities that he could easily use to capture Enzo, and to be frank, this Enzo Matrix had been through quite a lot in life, so that he was quite able even without his incomplete Guardian training. "Stay where you are."

He almost ran anyway, but the sound of Matrix calling out, "Gun, Target," made him stop. No, he didn't think Matrix would shoot him, but that target was nearly impossible to lose. Bob's car, driven by Matrix, got closer. Panic and grief once more screamed at him to move, so what did he do?

He obeyed it, and took off at the moment his legs processed the signals from his mind and ran off of the road, through the grassy plain in front of him. He heard the car squeal to a stop and the slamming of a door. He was running then as fast as his legs could carry him, which was pretty darn fast on some days. Matrix was screaming at him loudly, and obviously chasing him.

Also obvious was the fact that he was gaining. The field was dark now and he could not see a thing in front of him. He had to keep going and hope he didn't trip over anything. He ran, and ran, knowing that even in this darkest of darks the glaring red of the target on his back would be like sunlight to the man's right eye.

Eventually, the yells stopped, but the footsteps grew closer, loud enough for him to hear the rustling of the long grass. Enzo merely kept running, his eyes closed, his mind focusing on the beat of his feet against the ground. He had no idea where he was going, truthfully. After several minutes, where was sudden weight and then he was thrown to the ground bodily. The weight fell on him, and no matter how he struggled or wormed, he was unable to move his body an inch.

He fought on and hard, screaming against the man who was pinning his arms down behind his back. A moment later, one large hand around both of his wrists tightly, he was hauled to his feet and then into the air, where Matrix tossed him bodily over his shoulder and began walking back to the car.

"No, let me go, please, just let me go."

"Shut up for a second, I've got to find my way back."

"Let me go," he yelled. Matrix jostled him none-too-gently and gave a noise that sounded like a feral growl.

"I said be quiet."

The big, muscled man had little problem keeping Enzo in place for the few minutes it took for him to finally find his way back to the road, wrench open the passenger door of Bob's car and put him harshly down onto the seat. Before Enzo could escape out of the door it was shut in his face and Matrix had leapt over the hood, locking the door as he slid into his seat, and shut his.

"Now," he said, pocketing his gun and letting his eye roll back into visual only mode. "What happened tonight?"

"I left," the boy said, now growing soft in the voice.

"Why?" Matrix asked, letting the worry into his voice. "I always loved life with sis, she was great. She always took care of me. Always loved me. She adores you."

"That's just it isn't it? She adores _you_."

The anger stung at Matrix, who didn't know what was bothering him. "Don't yell, please, headache."

"No, I won't," Enzo replied, perhaps a little dryly, "but my point is, you're the one everybody loves. Enzo Matrix. That's you. Not me. I'm… I'm a fake. All they care about is what you used to be. I'm nothing. I'm not real."

"What?" Matrix asked, stopping from starting the car up. "How could you say that? Everyone loves _you_ for _you._"

"No, they love me for you. I live with _your_ sister, Bob is _your_ friend. Friskett is _your_ dog. I'm not real. You're you. I'm nothing," he said, drawing his legs up to his chest and burying his head against his knees.

"Enzo," began Matrix, but then he was quite cut off.

Enzo's head shot up, Matrix saw his face contorted with such anger, such indignation and rage that even he, hardened as he was and feeling and looking seconds older, could not help but feel the momentarily lurch of fear. "_Stop calling me that!_ That's _your _name, not mine. You won't even be called by it! I'd give anything to be Enzo Matrix, anything! I'm not! I'm not real!"

"Hey, calm down on me," he started, almost comforting, almost scolding. Then the boy quite clearly began to cry, pressing his face against his legs.

"Do you… do you know what its like to be completely alone?"

"Do you have Seer's Syndrome?" Matrix asked, for the second time in the boy's new life.

"Yes," the boy answered this time, sobbing harder. "I remember the last game you played on Mainframe. I remember AndrAIa as a kid, I remember how much… how much you… how much I… loved her…."

This brought every course of action that had been in Matrix's mind to a screeching halt. "Oh, user!" he exclaimed softly.

Enzo felt the man's arm fall across his shoulders in something close to a comforting gesture.

"I see you two, and it hurts. AndrAIa grew up with someone else. I'd begun to think, right before the game, that we'd grow up together. I'd begun to fall in love."

He thought of his fondest memory, the one where she looks up at him, holding out Glitch, and says the words he so desperately needed.

_"Wrong! We do have a guardian. Guardian, your keytool. Remember what Bob said."_

_Her simple words had given him courage. _

_"I am Guardian Matrix, charged with defending this system… two viruses take over my home? I don't think so." _

"She made me… you fight to save Mainframe, because I… I mean, you loved her that much. Do you know what it feels like to see her there, in love with you, older? Having spent her life with you, and not me? Being a whole different person, practically an adult? I don't want to be around this anymore. I want you to let me out of here… let me go somewhere. I don't belong here."

Matrix tightened his hold as Enzo went for the lock on the car door.

"Let me out of here!"

His own mind was pensive with the boy's words, but he could not bring himself to let the boy go. Had he felt all that all this time? It was no wonder he'd tried to run. Half of him wanted to let him go. The other half of Matrix was disgusted with the first. He only wanted to let the boy go so it would be easier. This wasn't the Surfer when he first began making subtle advances toward AndrAIa. This was… Matrix himself… somewhat.

He couldn't begrudge this boy his feelings, because they were also his own, to a degree. Had he ever experienced this anger or fear or confusion? He'd experienced grief, plenty of it, but not of the type this kid was telling him about. A thing no one seemed to understand about he or AndrAIa was that they looked older… they didn't feel older.

He was still, inside, a kid. A scared kid sometimes, a confused one, but still... there was a lot of kinship between how he felt inside and how the kid looked now, in this state of baring the truth to him. In the end Matrix turned silently away from the kid and started the car.

"I have to take you home."

"I can't go there."

The larger shook his head as if to say it was out of his hands. "You will."

Silence.

"You can't tell anyone."

Matrix nodded. "Alright."

At first, this was all he could manage. He couldn't trust his own voice. Neither of them could.

It took him a while, but finally he managed to speak.

"Sis said she thought you thought of me as your older brother," he started softly. "She thought you were happy."

"I couldn't think of any of you as anything to me. All I am is someone who stole your life. What do I matter?"

Matrix truly began then and there to understand the depth of the boy's feelings. He was truly, truly hurt. He was suffering. Half of Matrix wanted to stop the car and reach out, but the half that had gone through the games had lost the warm and fuzzy layer, made him keep going. This was far too intricate and awkward for any sort of physical contact. Enzo dared to look up from where he had his head buried against his knees once or twice, but in the darkness could not use the fleeting glances to get a good read on Matrix's face.

He wasn't exactly sure he wanted to see the look on the sometimes scary man's face. No matter how much he knew Matrix should hate him, he both loved and hated Matrix. Matrix reminded him of the memories of Bob being launched into the net, Matrix reminded him he could never have the one he loved, Matrix reminded him he was fake, Matrix even reminded him that his dream of becoming a guardian was not real either.

Matrix also reminded him of his father.

Not in the sense of the physical or even the mental. They were very different in that sense, but the imposing presence, the focus. And he even sometimes felt that brotherly connection Dot believed supremely ruled his feelings for Matrix. He hated and loved Matrix, just as he hated and loved everyone around him. He hated because he knew if he loved too much, it would bring about his end. They loved Matrix… they didn't love _him._

That was just the fact of his life. It all brought him back around to why he had run off when the moment of irrationality had seized him. He was hurting where he was now, bad. Enzo knew it.

Matrix knew it.

One had a plan.

The other didn't.


	2. Chapter 2: Cursors!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Reboot, or it would be on TV right now.

A/N: This is smaller because I built in a natural break here. Also, I was watching the Reboot Season 3 Recap on Youtube today, and I realized how much I loved the show. I totally got cracked up. I'm a grown friggin man now, and watching the show that I loved as a kid can totally bring me near tears.

--

"Enzo Matrix," Dot all but screamed as he was steered into the living room by Matrix. He gave the man a look and shook his head, but did not answer. "I've been worried sick! What were you thinking?"

Silence was all he gave in return, and it hurt him more than he would care to admit. For the next three Nanoseconds, he pit his silence against Dot's screaming, then her soft everything-will-be-alright-if-we-just-talk voice, and then finally against her tears. This hurt most of all. He was aware he wanted to reach out to her, to comfort her, to get her comfort, but he knew also that it was all fake.

These feelings were what Enzo Matrix would be experiencing in his spot, not real feelings. Nothing was real. Finally, she collapsed against the couch as if exhausted and said nothing more, burying her face in her hands silently. He took that as his cue to go to bed, and was surprised as she got up to hug him tightly before he went.

It felt good.

But he knew this too, was fake.

Perhaps the most shocking thing, was when Matrix did it too. Matrix wasn't the huggy type, to anyone but AndrAIa. He didn't like being touched by anyone, occasionally he would flinch when even Bob patted him on the back in a comforting manner. Yet, Matrix was going against what seemed to be his nature and attempting to comfort him.

It felt surprisingly like his father, and this too, brought the boy to tears. Like Enzo Matrix's father. Matrix increased the pressure of the hug before letting go of him and squeezing his shoulder in another horribly uncharacteristic expression of affection. "Sleep well," he whispered to the boy.

"Can you forgive me?" the boy whispered back, unable to stop.

This caused Matrix to hesitate, and the boy took this moment to break away and ran to his room, shutting the door behind him.

Matrix turned and looked at his sister who was gazing at him as if he'd just announced that he planned to single handedly defeated Megabyte with a laser pointer.

"What did he say?" she finally asked, "What were you two whispering about? Do you know why he ran away?"

"I do."

"Tell me," she demanded, stepping forward.

"No," he replied, turning his back to her.

"Why not?" she asked, stepping in front of him and giving him the elder sister glare.

"I promised him I would not. I couldn't."

She looked as if about to go off on him again, and then finally bit her lip. "How bad is it?"

"He's miserable, and at this point, I imagine he'd rather delete himself than have things go on. I reckon if I felt as bad as he did, I _would _have deleted myself." Seeing the look of hurt, of pain on her face just made Matrix feel worse.

"In truth, Dot, it's nothing to do with you. More of… us as a whole," he took a deep breath. "The worst thing is, there's nothing we can do for him. Give him space, alright?"

"When did you get to be so wise?" she asked, as she hugged him tight.

"I don't know sis, it's just in the blood."

"I guess so," she replied sadly, turning to look at the closed door of Enzo's room. "How do I know he won't run off?"

"I'll stay with him tonight," Matrix offered, before knowing he would. "If you wouldn't mind having AndrAIa and I over for breakfast in the morning."

"Never," she replied, smiling to her larger little brother.

"Alright," he said, "then I'm going to go to sleep."

When Matrix opened the door to his old room… the boy was already clearly asleep. He took the pillow and blanket handed to him, walked to the cleanest corner of the room, tossed these down and went to sleep, Gun resting at his hip, ready to provide him with the targeting ability should he need it.

The boy referred to as Enzo Matrix woke the next morning and as he remembered the past few nanoseconds, he expected that the morning would chase away the feelings woken inside of him the night prior.

It did not. He looked around the room, and saw Matrix asleep, half sitting up, in a corner of the room, his right hand resting trustingly on Gun. Enzo got up and stumbled silently from his room into the bathroom, did his business and then came back into his room. This time Matrix was awake, sitting exactly as he had been when Enzo left, his eyes narrowed slightly.

"Good morning," Matrix greeted.

"Is it?" Enzo replied, sarcastically, and then went silent as emotions came on even thicker. Last night had not worked out well, not at all. In fact, he was regretting it quite thoroughly. Matrix stood and stretched very briefly and then left the room. The sound of Dot in the kitchen brought Enzo out eventually. However regretfully he entered the kitchen, he needed food.

He did _indeed_ regret it.

Seated at the table were Dot, Bob, now Matrix and finally AndrAIa. Emotional pain rippled through him as he took a plate from the cabinet and gathered the food on his own before sitting down next to Bob at one end of the table, and digging in without another word.

The whole table was staring at him, he knew, as he ate slowly, deliberately and in silence. Deliberate was exactly the adjective to describe the way he was avoiding looking at any part of anyone. The others all seemed to stop their breakfasts and he just couldn't bring himself to look up at anyone.

"Enzo," started Bob. "We need to talk about last night."

He said nothing, clenching his eyes shut at the tone of Bob's voice. Bob didn't take that particular tone with him very often. It was a mix of disappointment and a fatherly scolding quality, and it grated at him.

Matrix started. "Maybe y-"

Enzo shot him the fiercest look he could mange through narrowed eyes, as if reminding him of the promise.

"Enzo," Dot started, scolding, but stopped when he stood slowly, nodded toward the table and then left the room, walking into the living room without a word.

"Wow," Bob said in an undertone. "I don't think I've ever seen _that_ look on his face before."

Matrix nodded silently, now averting his eyes from the Guardian.

"Maybe," Dot tried, "he'll talk to you, AndrAIa."

Matrix grimaced. "I'm not sure that's the best idea."

"I _should_ go talk to him," AndrAIa said, "he's never been rude to me."

Matrix could only continue to grimace and avert his eyes from everyone as she left the room.


	3. Chapter 3: One's past? Another's future

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Reboot, or it would be on TV right now.

A/N: This one TOO is smaller because I built in a natural break here. Cheers to "money makes me smile".

--

In the living room she found Enzo sitting on the couch. She expected to see him with his arms folded over his chest, glaring at the wall or pouting. Instead, he sat back, completely slack, his eyes dull and empty as he stared at the opposing wall. His breath was even, his mouth half open, looking as if it had begun to form words but stopped.

Being around Matrix had taught her what this meant. This was more than being upset or angry about something… this was even more than brooding on it; whatever the problem was, Enzo was lost in it. She sat down in a specific chair, chosen so that it would put her directly in the line of Enzo's dead stare.

Of course as she sat down she saw focus returning to his eyes and smiled warmly at him. For some reason this seemed to upset him more, which worried her. "What is it little Sparky? What's wrong?"

He shook his head and closed his eyes, whispering something softly.

"You're going to have to speak up, if you want me to hear you," she chided softer still. "You know I'm here for ya, right Enzo?" The wince at her words confused her even more.

"I said… please just leave it."

"And leave you alone in this state? No way." She didn't want to tell him that doing that was what had let Matrix wander so far off the path he had once been on, she didn't want to tell him that she thought a kid his age acting like this was unnatural and thus he was worrying her rather thoroughly.

"It'll only hurt more, if I try to talk about it."

"But you talked to Matrix about it?"

"Why not?" Enzo asked, looking up and tilting his head. "After all… I'm just a fake him, aren't I?"

The power with which he spoke these words, as much as the words themselves made her start forward so much that she stood, intending to seize the child in a hug, but she was frozen in place when he looked up at her with those empty, torn eyes, and whispered, "Leave it be…please."

Before she could answer, words rang throughout the system.

**_Warning… incoming game._**

_**Warning… incoming game.**_

There was a moment of scuffle and then Bob was shouting out coordinates to Matrix who was telling him to stay with Dot this once and keep an eye on Enzo. Enzo watched as AndrAIa reluctantly moved away from him to meet Matrix, and pretended to be sitting… doing nothing.

But in reality, every piece of his brain was telling him that this was an amazing chance.

One he'd take. The moment the front door had shut and he saw out of the window that Matrix and AndrAIa were off on Matrix's motorbike, Enzo opened the front door, and took off, pulling his hoverboard from behind a bush, and leapt on it, following the now airborne motorscycle from a distance, before Dot and Bob even knew he was gone.

The glow of the purple cube was evident as it began its descent and with it, Matrix and AndrAIa descended, and Enzo, hovering barely above the ground, followed.

"He's behind us," AndrAIa stated, putting away a mirror she had just been using to get a look at Enzo. "I think he just wants fresh air… I hope that's it."

In truth, she had a bad feeling that he was plotting something far more dangerous.

Matrix said nothing and turned back on his bike to motion Enzo away from them. Enzo didn't react and instead sped up. "Go home," Matrix called as the boy drew even.

"No."

They were so distracted by this moment, that neither saw the game cube crashing down upon them.

A moment later their vehicles were gone, and they were underwater.

Enzo struggled, not being able to draw breath. Immediately he slammed his hand twice into his icon. Light briefly clouded his vision and then he looked down at himself. He was in a wetsuit, with a breathing device in his mouth.

When he turned to look to the side as he floated, a large, hulking green shark swam up to him, speaking none too kindly about him joining them in the game. A moment later AndrAIa, as a mermaid swam by.

"We know this game," AndrAIa said, suddenly.

"Hidden Cavern," Matrix replied, showing his massive and sharp teeth.

"The User is a diver like Enzo, who is trying to get into the cavern over there, to find a treasure chest hidden deep inside."

"Then that means we need to stop him from getting it. I'll guard the entrance, you two go a little further in, and catch him if he gets by."

Enzo nodded, gripping the Harpoon in his hands. He swam behind AndrAIa purposefully, letting her lead the way into the cavern which grew progressively darker as they moved father in, until finally they surfaced in a room, lit by torches. Enzo was glad to be able to get up on dry land, even if it was an uncomfortable rock. He pulled the mask and breathing device off.

"You just can't talk in those things, right?" AndrAIa said, poking her head above the surface of the water. His silence allowed her more worry. "Well, Enzo, you're the last line of defense, you and that harpoon."

He still didn't answer. He wasn't trying to be rude; he just couldn't formulate a proper way to reply to her in his current state. He also couldn't believe neither of his companions had caught on to his plan yet. After all, it was because of them that it had come about.

There was a ruckus outside of the cave, and Matrix' yell was clearly heard, as well as a mighty slam. "He tried to get too far into the cave and hurt himself," AndrAIa said, worriedly. "I'm going under there to check this out."

She disappeared beneath the surface, and he saw her form slide through the water, back the way they had came. He turned to look at the treasure chest, hidden in a back part of the dry caver, emitting a faintly soft glow. He knew he had to stop the User from retrieving it, so the safest place to do that would be right outside the doorway. He positioned himself as such, and waited.

Sure enough, a diver surfaced a moment later, followed by AndrAIa, who threw herself on land and attempted to push him back into the water. He, in return, seized her hand and pulled her back into the water, before stepping on land. Enzo lifted the harpoon gun and took caeful aim. "Stop there, User."


	4. Chapter 4: Maelstrom

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Reboot, or it would be on TV right now.

A/N: A longer one.

--

The User did not stop. Shedding the mask and breather, the User walked toward the open entrance way, staring hungrily into it, wildly. Enzo lifted the gun to fire and suddenly the User reacted, a backhand striking him hard across the face and to the ground. On reaction as he fell, he fired. The harpoon shot forward and slammed into a wall. The User ran right into the attached line at waist height and flipped over it. "Finish him," AndrAIa advised. "Just get his Oxygen pack away."

Enzo stepped forward to do just that, but as he did, the User turned over and brought a harpoon up to aim at Enzo's chest. "Don't move." Enzo had other plans.

He held his hands up slowly, and waited. The User lowered the gun and made to stand up. Enzo seized his oxygen pack off of his own back and hurled it. It slammed against the User's skull painfully and the User fell back to the ground.

"Good job, little Sparky," AndrAIa cheered from where she sat on the edge of the water, her trident in hand.

Enzo almost smiled at her encouragement. Most of his focus, however, fell on doing what he had been planning since the cube had appeared. He stepped forward and began to untie the oxygen pack from the User's back, as it came loose he turned back to her. It was time, time to leave this behind. This was a way he could actually do it. _This_ was how he'd become free. He felt like a moron for not having made this plan a long time ago.

It hurt to think about it, now that the chance was plainly here in front of him.

The look of triumph slid from AndrAIa's face as she saw that he was not looking happy. In fact, he was most likely crying.

She saw the movement of his right arm as the pack left his hand, flying toward the water, and that of his left arm as it moved toward his icon. She saw him press down, saw the AI hack put into use, and her eyes widened. Panicking a bit, just as she heard the splash of the pack in the water, her hand found her own Icon, and she too went AI.

There was a flare of purple, and then they were gone.

"Game over."

Dot and Bob came running into the area that had been caught up in the game cube, each worried, each angry to a small degree. They would _make_ Enzo talk to them this time. When they found only an unconscious Matrix lying in the middle of a road, however, those plans, as well as their anger, fell away.

They had Matrix taken back to the Principle Office, as this was fast approaching a crisis. Two of their sprites had disappeared from Mainframe via a game.

Again.

Dot felt the old despair and anxiety build up inside.

It was going to be a long cycle.

When Enzo could see again he was on a foreign system, amidst tall buildings in a down-town area. Standing over him was AndrAIa, looking more nervous than anything else. "Are you alright?" she whispered, turning her icon back to normal. He followed suit.

"Why did you follow me?" Enzo asked, half-yelling in frustration and dropping back to his knees. He wanted to break down again as he had the night prior. He knew, however, that he had to stop it.

"Because, someone has to get you back home," she replied, forcefully but not unkindly. Seeing the look of defeat on his face, she stepped forward and embraced the boy briefly.

This took Enzo purely by surprise and any hope of self-control was lost to the same emotions that had awoken in him the car with Matrix. Even as he half-heartedly tried to pull away from the warmth of her body, he cried.

She could feel his weak pushes, as if he was hesitant to use any force at all on her. She could see the way his body shook in her arms and could feel the tremors too. It occurred to her that perhaps he _was_ trying to get free but just didn't have the necessary strength. That was all well and good too. He continued to cry, she continued to keep hold of him.

"Talk to me," she said. "What's with you Enzo?"

"Don't… call… me… Enzo," he managed. "I'm not Enzo Matrix!"

"What?" she asked, almost pulling back.

"I'm nobody. I'm not real, that's why I don't need to be living in Mainframe. I'm just a copy of Matrix. I'm not a real sprite! My friends aren't my own, my sister isn't my own, my dog isn't my own… the person I l-" he cut himself off, but she wasn't a moron. She knew what the next word was, and it confused her. Then pieces fell into place.

"Seer's Syndrome," she whispered.

No sooner had he nodded than he pulled back suddenly, pushing her to the side forcefully and grabbing her trident. She winced as she landed butt-first, but looked up just in time to see what had happened.

Even in his state of general discontent and seemingly being lost in grief, Enzo had seen it out of his watery and squinted eyes. An obvious virus. Its hands were like drills at the moment and thrusting toward AndrAIa. She was obviously in danger, and his only reaction had been to protect. It was, after all, what Matrix would do. The impact as it hit the trident knocked the weapon from his hands, his arms giving way. The weapon landed half-upright in a crack in the street and the virus continued to impale itself by its own momentum. An earsplitting scream echoed from the virus as it thrashed and AndrAIa got back to her feet. Eventually it grew still, its body falling against the trident completely, its eyes and mouth wide.

It was gone.

Deleted.

A moment later he heard the sound of a hoverboard and looked up as a guardian dressed in a suit somewhat like Bob's old cadet suit only red and golden appeared. Oh yes, Enzo recognized this man. Turbo. Turbo had redeemed himself in the eyes of mainframe by helping against Daemon and helping Matrix get back home safely. There was, however, a finite sense of dread of this Guardian. The Head Guardian.

"Crashes," the man exclaimed. "A game? At the Super Computer? And to think that Maelstrom had the bad luck..." and then a moment later, his eyes landed on Enzo and AndrAIa and his sentence cut itself off. "User," he said softly. "Enzo Matrix?"

"No, a copy of his," the boy called Enzo replied, standing up and trying to act far more put together than he currently was. AndrAIa gave him a look.

"You're Turbo, right?"

"Hello AndrAIa, do you mind telling me what in the name of the User you're doing at the Super Computer?"

"Complete luck," she replied, blatantly. "We rode the game."

"Why? What happened?" He was suddenly all business. "Is Mainframe in danger?"

"No," she replied, "but… is there somewhere we can talk privately?" They_ were_ in an open area surrounded by sprites and binomes emerging from their hiding places, after all.

Dot, Mouse, and Ray sat at their given points in the room, none of them looking at each other while they were so completely lost in their own thoughts. None of them looked at the form of Matrix on the cot in the back of the Principle Office, still quite unconscious. For Dot, it was a bad room that brought back bad memories.

From the time when Matrix and AndrAIa had disappeared from Mainframe, to the time when they had returned, this had been Dot's bedroom. Dot's home. When you had no one to go home to, there is little reason to leave work. That, at least, had been the process of Dot's thinking. Bob and Phong were not gathered around Matrix's side.

Neither would admit that they were very worried, as they walked around the main part of the Principle Office. Bob was doing his best to not look like he was thinking about the fact that two people he cared about had vanished and a third was unconscious mysteriously and without any proper guesses why except that he had somehow been bested by the User when he had spent a second of his life besting said being. Phong on his other hand was hiding his slight despair.

Thus it was, as Matrix began to stir half-heartedly, that Bob and Phong both jumped at the chance to investigate an odd beep of unknown origin that began to ring through the nearly empty command center. It took them a very short amount of time to determine the source.

"Glitch?" Bob asked, looking down at the keytool. "Oh… User."

Bob set the keytool down on a pad, uploading a data feed to one of the large screens. "It's a priority one message Phong."

"Priority one?"

"Meaning it came from the High Guardian or someone directly under him."

It took a moment for the upload to complete and then the main screen flared to life, showing Turbo. "Bob?"

"Hello, Turbo."

"You want to take a guess why I'm messaging you?"

Bob took a moment to breathe deep. "Either A, you have an assignment that you need my help with, or B, less likely, you know where Enzo and AndrAIa are."

"B."

Bob sighed in relief and sank into a chair. Turbo gave a soft smirk to him and then continued. "Maelstrom broke loose, an hour before deletion."

"Maelstrom? Being deleted? He's more of a nuisance than a threat!"

"Maelstrom's had about two upgrades since you left for Mainframe, Bob. He was quite a threat." There was a pause, and then Turbo continued. "Just as he got out, I and three men went to chase him. A moment later, a game landed in the Super Computer."

"A game?" Bob asked, incredulously. They never, _ever_ got games there!

"Yes," Turbo agreed, "I thought it was odd too. When I'd beaten it, I began tracking Maelstrom again, and by the time I got to him, he was impaled on a three pronged trident."

Matrix, who had walked into the room some moments earlier, was grinning. "That's my AndrAIa."

"No," Turbo said, looking at the man. "It was the boy. He saved her life. Look, this isn't what I messaged you about. That's not the problem. The problem is… the kid doesn't want to come back. He wants to stay."

"Stay?" Phong asked. "Whatever for?"

"I can't tell you why. He won't tell me. He wants to go into the Y.R. program at the Academy, and I think it's a fine idea."

Bob frowned, followed by Matrix. "I don't know," the Bob said. "Dot would never allow it."

"I don't think it's about that," Matrix replied. "She shouldn't stand in his way in this."

"Matrix," Bob scolded, turning on him. At the look on the elder Matrix male's face, he stopped. "What's going on?"

"I can't tell you. I promised him I wouldn't."

"AndrAIa wants to talk to you in private, if the others would mind leaving the room."

Bob looked at Phong, who looked through the doorway where Matrix stood at Dot behind him (glaring daggers at his back).

When the crowd had shut the door behind them and was gone, Turbo left the room on the other side, and all Matrix saw was AndrAIa. "Hey, lover," she greeted softly. "We need to talk."

"What is it? Are you alright?" She smiled weakly at him, which brought worry to the forefront of his mind. "What's wrong AndrAIa?"

"Not with me. With Enzo."

"He told you?"

She nodded leaning forward a bit as she did and looking tired. "He's… hurting badly."

Matrix nodded. "He told me everything last night too. We can't make him come back. If he wants to go into the Academy, there's no reason why we should stand in his way."

"Is letting him run away okay?"

Matrix looked into her eyes, saw the understanding as they met his and he whispered, "Can you imagine what it would be like, to be your younger self and see me with you now? Now imagine that for everyday of the rest of your life."

She hung her head even more. "I never even considered he could have Seer's Syndrome," she whispered.

"Sometimes, I think I knew, but I never could place just quite what it was that was wrong with him." He longed to hold her in his arms, but could see no way of doing so, not for a while.

"I feel so guilty," she continued in a whisper.


	5. Chapter 5: Keest Roke

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Reboot, or it would be on TV right now.

A/N: A longer one.

--

"Don't be," two voices said at once. On the vidscreen he saw Enzo step into the room, morose, speaking in time with him.

"It's not your fault," Enzo said, sitting down beside her near the screen. Matrix's eyes were drawn to the shattered look on his face.

"It isn't," Matrix agreed. "It's ours."

"It's mine," Enzo rebuked. "And you don't need to suffer for it, AndrAIa."

"Hey, kid," Matrix said, drawing Enzo's attention to him. "Do you really want to never come back?"

"If I come back, I'll only hurt. If I stay here, become a guardian, then maybe… just maybe… I'll find some end."

"If you think you're going to just go to the Academy and let some virus delete you, you're wrong." Matrix was all but glaring now, and AndrAIa had dropped from the conversation.

"No, not just some virus. No virus will ever kill me unless he's worthy, and so far as I know, the only one who had a shot is trapped for good."

Matrix didn't know quite what to say to that.

"There, in Mainframe, I'd be deadweight, and I'd never be happy. Here, I may still never be happy, but I will be of some use." AndrAIa was looking at him out of the corner of her eyes. "I could become a Guardian, with a purpose to mend and defend. If I do this…I'll have a purpose."

Matrix closed his eyes for a moment to sigh and then look up. "You have a purpose now; living. People love you, Enzo."

"That's not my name anymore. I just signed up to the Academy, as Suedo Nem. Listen to me Matrix. Take back your name. Don't let it go to waste. It was the one thing of yours I could almost let myself take and not feel guilty." This caused Matrix some amount of stress.

"Alright then, 'Suedo'. I'll consider it. I'm asking you one more time. Come back, for Dot's sake if no one else's."

"She's better off without me."

"No I'm not!" The door opened and Bob followed Dot who had run into the room, quickly.

"I'm not your brother," Enzo managed, in a choked voice, as if he was about to break back down. AndrAIa threw an arm around his shoulders and he obviously almost tried to shrug it off, but he didn't. "I'm sorry Dot, I just can't come back to Mainframe."

"Will you send us messages? Will you come visit?"

"Maybe," he lied. He planned to do nether of those if he could get away with enrolling.

Dot sighed and received Bob's hug. "I don't want to lose you Enzo."

"That's not me, that's him," and then the boy who had fashioned himself Suedo Nem stood. "Turbo says he has a place for me to sleep until the Academy begins."

"Please, Enzo."

"No, I can't."

"Enzo…" Dot could not finish this, because Matrix turned on her, moved to her, and whispered.

"You're hurting him, I know you're not trying but it's killing him inside right now, please, we'll try later, for now, letting him go is the best," when Bob released her Matrix hugged his sister and then turned back to the screen, where Suedo stood, watching them.

"Turbo will bring AndrAIa home before the end of the next cycle," Suedo said, and then he turned and left the room, his shoulder shaking in badly disguised crying.

AndrAIa leaned toward the view screen and looked toward Matrix, but remained silent for a long moment. When Bob and Mouse led Dot from the room, she spoke. "He's gone, Sparky."

The larger version nodded, "Doubtless," he almost whispered. "I'm not going to say I'm not a bit envious that he's going to the Academy though."

"You could still go," she said. "They accept many different ages."

"I know I could, but I don't think I should leave you and Mainframe," there was a pause. "He told me to take back the name Enzo Matrix, you know… but every time I hear the name Enzo, I think I'll think of him."

"Would that be a bad thing, Lover?"

Suedo and Turbo watched the ship sail off into the net, AndrAIa on it. "We've gotta get back home, kid."

Suedo looked up, feeling blank. This was altogether different from crushing agony and depression. "My niece lives at home and she'll be back any second now. She's going into the Academy's Young Recruit program same time as you, you know."

"Oh," he managed, tonelessly. "I see."

"Come on Suedo, let's get out of here." The ship disappeared from their sight, and Suedo felt he was all to ready to acquiesce the request. All too ready.

-breakline-

Enzo, or Suedo as we must now call him or risk his ire, sat down in the guest room in Turbo's home. It was an expansive home, as he was a very powerful sprite. Suedo didn't know quite what was going through his head. Every source of his depression was gone. Or, to be more specific, he was gone from their system. He was, for the first time, free of the title of Enzo Matrix, which had been one of the biggest sources of his trouble. He still felt an ache whenever he envisioned AndrAIa, but he also felt something close enough to happiness to blank his mind at being abruptly free from most of everything that had torn him up inside.

Here, on this unknown system, he had felt more happiness than he had his whole life, that is to say _his_ life, not Enzo's. He was pulled out of his revere by a knock on the door. When he walked to it and opened it, he found a girl obviously his age standing outside the door. She had long green hair and pale blue skin. Her eyes were slightly, so very slightly, angled, and cobalt. He was dimly aware he should find her very beautiful, but that sort of thing didn't rank high on his process's list of important thoughts. "Hi, Enzo" she said.

"Hi," he replied, uneven for two reasons. "Please don't call me that, and… how do you know my name anyway?" he asked, tilting his head and stepping aside to admit her entrance.

"Oh, sorry, it's just, living with uncle, I've heard a lot about you… but he told me about why you came, Suedo, or most of it at least."

"Oh, you're Keest?" he asked, smiling a little, and self-consciously running a hand through his dark hair.

"My friends call me Kee," she said, holding her hand out to him. He shook, feeling foolishly formal. "And I promise, I won't call you that name anymore."

She had a feeling of energy about her, it wasn't that intense and vaguely annoying energy some girls had, it was a more mature energy, confined, controlled. _Here, at least,_ he thought,_ is someone I could talk to._ He smiled gratefully, though he was aware it would look horribly false, and hoped she didn't call him on that. She briefly lost that intense happiness, but then it was back and she smiled back at him.

"Well, are you excited to go to the Academy," she asked, amiably, perhaps with a mere hint of shyness. He motioned toward the chair in the room and she took it. "I've been waiting for this for a while, personally."

"I used to want to be a Guardian, and then for a little while, it just sort of fizzled out. But I think I'm really interested in it, again, I guess." He was really trying to sound enthusiastic, to be a good companion to talk to, and he wasn't totally sure why. Maybe he just had gotten tired of living inside his own head.

"I wonder," she said, conversationally, "if anyone in our class will get a Keytool during the opening ceremony. No one in the Young Recruits ever gets one during the first choosing."

He wondered briefly, what it would be like if a Keytool chose him. He looked down at his arm, where he could steel feel the weight of his counterpart's memories of Glitch resting on his right forearm. "It would be interesting," he admitted to her.

"Oh yes," she replied, now looking a little more like an eager kid. This was not at all an unpleasant thing either, Suedo decided. "I've been doing a lot of training for Hand-to-Hand combat class though, ever since I enrolled a month ago. It's what I look forward to most."

"What other classes will they be giving us?" he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

She spoke, and he listened, and for once his thoughts didn't wander back to Mainframe. He didn't wonder if he was sad, happy, or empty, he didn't have a true notice of his feelings, as he was allowing himself to concentrate on every word being spoken to him, something he hadn't done back on Mainframe. It had usually been a very painful experience to have one of Enzo's friends or family talking to him.

Keest talked for a few more Nanoseconds, and he was content to listen and give his opinion on how he'd do in certain classes, and then the two were stumbled upon by Turbo, who announced to them that he had work to do and that they would have to go downtown for dinner. No sooner had he left than Keest had stood and suggested they do exactly that. The end in conversation brought about a crashing return to his previously disorganized mindset.

He followed her down town on foot to a small diner. Dinner was a surprisingly odd affair, he still wasn't overly calm in her presence, not knowing her well yet. She looked as if she was restraining herself in the company of a hero, and this, more than anything bothered him. He ate in silence, save for when she asked him a question and he tried to answer as amiably as possible, but sometimes she tried to ask him about Mainframe and his life there.

His answer was always silence, followed a moment later by a request to not mention that place again. He could tell that after the third time, she had given up that particular line of inquiry, and returned to speaking to him less like some hero and more like a person, she had retained that quiet maturity, for which he was glad, as it allowed him to slide back into his comfort zone, and he was able to actually speak _with_ her again. "So, how long before we head off to the Academy?"

"Two days," she answered, cheerfully displaying two digits before returning to drinking her drink, some strange sweet nectar they didn't have on Mainframe. It was definitely good and he could easily get used to it. "I think Uncle Turbo said something about making sure they partnered us together."

"Partner?"

"Everything is done in pairs. Physical and mental exams, for example, and even duties around the school. It makes it easier on the teachers to know who we are and it helps people get used to having a partner in the future." He nodded. It wouldn't be bad at all to be partnered with her in everything inside the school.

As long as he could talk to her this easily, it might be a good thing.


	6. Chapter 6: Lost Angles

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Reboot, or it would be on TV right now.

A/N: Another one.

--

Even when they finished eating, they didn't leave for quite a few minutes, but a problem he had not foreseen quickly made itself known. Trying so hard to forget his past, he was left with little to nothing to tell about himself. She knew plenty anyway. As such, whenever she lapsed into silence, he quietly prompted her toward another subject of conversation so that he could listen and learn more about her and her life and the Super Computer in general.

Before he knew it, he was walking along side her, and she was silent again. "Could I see it?" she finally asked.

"What?"

"Your cadet uniform."

"Oh," this was a sore subject to him. His icon still contained a copy of Bob's cadet protocol, given to Matrix by the Guardian, before vanishing into the net.

Somehow, however, it felt right. He taped his icon and felt what felt like a wave washing over him before he looked down and saw himself in the cadet uniform. He had Guardian protocols, technically he _was_ a cadet. He had vowed, however, to let no one see this. Turbo knew, that was enough. He tapped his icon again a moment later and returned to normal.

"Wow, it looks good on you," she said, playfully.

For a reason beyond his understanding, this comment agitated him.

He was silent for a few moments more, and then she said, "Sorry."

"Don't mention it," he replied softly, and then continued walking along side her, his hands in his pockets. He watched the Binomes and Sprites passing by, looking as if they hadn't a care in the net. He wondered how people could do that. A cold crept upon him that had nothing to do with the weather, and exhausted, he followed her back to Turbo's home.

He apologized quietly and then went back up to the room Turbo had set aside for him and took an early sleep. He couldn't, nay he refused to face this anymore.

As Suedo was going to sleep, and night was approaching on most systems—though there was still a way to go—Mainframe was encountering a first: A Search Engine. Matrix, Dot and many others gathered in the Principle's Office noticed the incoming ship as it entered their system, and Matrix was quick to retrieve the motorcycle and rush to meet it.

His mind wasn't in his driving or —later in the short trip— his flying. Instead his mind was spinning. Words echoed through his head.

_If I come back, I'll only hurt._

And more disturbingly:

_Maybe I'll find some end._

It sounded like Enzo—he still couldn't use the name Suedo—was living to die. He'd done that at first, after losing his eye. His whole life for a long time was hopping from system to system via the games, looking for a user worthy to beat him or a virus worthy to delete him. A lot of Viruses had gotten close, and none of them had succeeded. Most of them gave him something, whether physical or mental. From the first, he learned to improvise and see even without his eye, despite feeling the crushing loss.

From the second, he learned to constantly be on the balls of his feet when fighting. As time passed he continued to learn, and as he compiled he realized he needed to begin to adapt. The first thing he did was secure a black, vest-jacket and code it into his programming after making sure to remove every trace of the virus that had worn it. It was thick enough to provide some protection in melee. Gauss had been a particularly challenging opponent for that reason amongst others. Not even Glitch's melee weaponry was enough to assist Matrix, who couldn't get close. Eventually he was taken down by a fall off the side of the system into the waves below.

The next he took a gun that had previously been built into the virus's arm, and reworked the coding. He'd become good at that because of the time he'd spent around Dot and Phong. When he found a system that could give him the eye, he helped them to connect the gun into it, and managed to complete his gearing up. And from then on, each virus presented him with a lesson, but he quickly became irritated of the lessons. He had wanted someone who could delete him, not teach him.

Matrix landed by the docks, running a hand through his dark green hair. The ship's door was opening.

_I'd tried to find any way to die_... _I used to think…_

He glanced toward the ship and breathed deeply. And on another system entirely a boy finished the thought with him.

_Too cowardly to delete myself, not worthy to exist._

"Hey, lover," Matrix looked up at AndrAIa, and in her eyes he saw a longing for comfort. In his eyes she saw an all too familiar depression.

"I want to go somewhere with just you and I. I love being back home… but… I miss being with you alone." He enveloped her in his arms. "I don't want to talk to Bob or Dot or Phong." Her hands slid up his back to his shoulders, and her head rested on one. It was a mutual comfort, mutual expression of grief that sent shivers through his body radiating from his processor to his feet.

He had no choice but to acknowledge his grief and hers by tightening the hug. "But where would we go that they couldn't find us if they wanted to?" AndrAIa asked him, with a whisper.

"I can think of a place," he finally said.

The hub of a virus's empire is dangerous to anyone but that virus. Even Guardians need watch their back. For a quasi guardian and a gamesprite, one might say it was stupid for them to be there. But Matrix had holed them up in a virus's den before. He knew how they worked. Any virus's den has two points of viral infection, two objects it is unsafe for anything non-viral to have prolonged contact with.

They were easy to spot in this room. Why? They were the only things there.

A mirror and a chair. Unlike before where he could use glitch to interface with the objects and remove the traces of virus; he was now clueless as how to reprogram the objects so that they would be safe. So his solution? Do what Matrix did best.

"Gun, target."

When the mirror and chair were both reduced to nothing, he kicked the remnants of each to one corner of the room. There was no furniture, no food, but at least there, in the lair of the long exiled Hexidecimal, they could be alone. Hexidecimal was a process for another time, Matrix decided as he sunk into a sitting position against one wall and held AndrAIa to him. It was a place for them to just sit and process. He felt a sense of comfort at having her with him, and for a moment he could pretend none of this was happening. That was a very good moment. Then it ended.

"What're we gonna do, Sparky?"

"I don't know," he said. "I kind of feel like I should be miserable too, for some reason. How messed up is that?"

Blue hair tickled his chin as they two got closer. "Not at all… he's… important to all of us."

Matrix sighed, releasing a breath. "Maybe that's why he left… he just didn't think he should be important. Didn't want to be important anymore to go with the other problems." She leaned closer into his chest and on reaction he shifted to help her, each of them wishing they could find some relief from grief and neither finding it. "_I_ don't even want to be on Mainframe right now."

"That's just the depression talking, lover. You'd miss it the moment you left." Matrix nodded.

"That's probably true." He paused. "Maybe I should go to the Super Computer."

"And what?" she asked, pulling back from him. "Hold him at gunpoint until he came back?"

"That's a possibility, there's also the chance that I could talk him out of this." AndrAIa shook her head and drew close to him again.

"If that was the case, then why is he gone to begin with? No, I think he needs time… but we need to make sure Turbo keeps an eye on him. He shouldn't be quiet or keeping anything to himself…."

"No, he shouldn't," Matrix agreed bitterly. A silence reigned over the room until he spoke next. "I'm sorry, that was stupid."

"No," she whispered. "It's alright."

"Neither of us knew… neither of us understood. That's the only excuse I can make. I never knew what I'd become. I'm sorry, AndrAIa." He knew he'd been unbearable.

"Come on," she said, running a hand through his hair "it wasn't that bad. Nothing Frisket and I couldn't handle."

In response his hand found her hair, slowly combing through it. When she moved away, he stood, stretching and walking to one side of the room, looking into the shards of the broken mirror, splinters of reflection staring back at him, he fell into focus on the sinister yellow eye. "I wish I could sleep this cycle, but I know I'll be awake."

Besides, in Hex's den he wasn't sure anyone could sleep safely, so he intended to watch over her. "When the sun goes down, I'll go and retrieve our things from Bob's. This is a decent place to call a home, now that Hex is gone." He moved away from the pile of mirror and wandered toward the center of the room. The platform that the chair once sat on still existed, and he figured it was a safe place to place a new chair, for a round room, it wouldn't be a bad idea.

"The island is dead," she said. "Lost Angels hasn't changed, even if all the people are back from it."

"I know, it reminds me of our past though, this island. And we can clean up the area outside, this building just feels like so many of the systems we went to. Chaotic."


	7. Chapter 7: Warning

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Reboot, or it would be on TV right now.

--

"Binomes, spread out. Matrix and AndrAIa have been missing for far too long now," she turned to Bob, who nodded before taking off into town. He needed to go on a careful search for Matrix, a careful, combing and specific search. Anyone who could kidnap Matrix and AndrAIa were most likely amazing at hiding stuff, too. For some reason, it did not occur to anyone that the two would have gone of their own free will.

Bob and Mouse headed this search, Ray and Dot heading another. The binomes took the ground as they spread out over the island, unknowingly, the wrong island. Bob was moving quickest, when an idea occurred to him. "I must be basic," he exclaimed, stopping some few meters from where they'd taken off. "User, this is so simple. Mouse, round everyone up, send them home. I'll be seeing you, with Matrix and AndrAIa." Before the orange-haired girl could speak, Bob was gone. He'd flown off and left her with no answers for all the questions Dot would soon be demanding answers to.

Bob, for his part, knew what to do. "Glitch, scanner. Trace my Guardian Protocols." A small viewscreen showed an overview of Mainframe, and the placing of the point denoting Matrix's location gave him a fright. Lost Angles. It could be something as simple as Matrix having gone to Al's, he had taken to doing that once in a while when he wasn't busy with repairs, which was becoming more and more frequently.

That settled it, he needed to head to Lost Angles.

**_Warning… incoming game._**

**_Warning… incoming game._**

"That settles it. I head for the game cube."

And so he moved. Looking around the completely circular room, he found the tunnel once concealed by a mirror and moved toward it, AndrAIa in tow. "So much for relaxing."

"It's a game though. We have to help," AndrAIa chided as they rose to the surface.

"Why? Bob can take care of it," Matrix replied, his arm reaching down to pull her level with him as they neared the top and were sent shooting out of the tunnel. They landed perfectly beside the motorbike, which he started up and took off on. The game was descending slowly enough, thankfully, but the cube would still reach soon enough. He couldn't have any mistakes. If he was going to get from Lost Angles to the other island in time, he'd need to fly.

Fly they did.

"Reboot," Bob uttered, tapping his icon twice.

A look around the forest showed no signs of anyone else. He glanced at a puddle beside him and saw that his hair had grown longer, a rugged beard had appeared on his face, and his body was clad in some sort of thin black cloth, with a blade at his belt. "Glitch, game stats."

After a quick read over of the objective of the game—Capture the Ring—he charged off into the woods. There was no path through this forest, he just had to keep running in the direction Glitch had pointed him. Then he had to find Matrix and AndrAIa… just in case his worst fear had come to pass.

The chances of Megabyte being returned… so very low. The chances of him actually catching both of them and holding them AND choosing Lost Angles… infinitesimal. Without outside help, Megabyte had no way to return, and Matrix had already proven he could delete Megabyte without serious injury to himself. With AndrAIa helping, the virus would have no chance… normally. But if there was something else….

A shifting form on the edge of his vision in the ever darkening woods made him shift. His reaction was to draw his sword, before a form burst out of a patch of trees, and then another .

The first was tall and bulky, with a dirty face, thick, angry eyebrows and a blade in each hand. One eye was swollen shut, and the other glowed a yellowish red. The other was slender and petite, borderline dainty but with an air of mischief that he could barely understand. Pointed ears and feminine hands were the most familiar features on this form, who was hidden by her veil of hair.

"Stop right there User," grunted the dual-wielding orc. Bob sighed in relief. Matrix.

"Wrong guy," he answered.

"Bob," Matrix exclaimed, lowering his weaponry. "Glad it was you."

"Now let's get a move on, and then you can explain to Dot why she organized a huge search party of binomes—most of which are trapped in this game right now—to find you." Bob started to move forward when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

There was something strange about the smile Matrix wore. "I don't think I'll explain anything, Bob." Matrix paused, and there was a brief moment where Bob thought… he saw green. Green in his eyes. Neon green. But that moment passed so quickly that he wrote it off as a trick of his own eyes. "I'm allowed to have my own thoughts, my own life, my own wants and needs. I wanted away."

Almost immediately Matrix hated the way he'd spoken to Bob, but unable to go back and change it, turned, a wave of deep remorse washing through his body before a settled calmness seized it. Oblivious to AndrAIa and Bob staring in confusion, Matrix charged forward into the forest, heading toward the goal. He'd gotten lucky, this was a game he'd experienced twice. Easy pickings.

Bob walked directly to his right and a step behind him, AndrAIa walked alongside him on his left. Silence reigned over the forest as the group kept on the lookout, and it was this silence that was so telling. It was this silence that had been so telling when he'd first arrived. In Forest adventure games, most were alive with the sound of wildlife, meaning traps and animals were his biggest worries.

When the forest was silent? It meant ambushes. Lots of them. All of these things normally only mattered to the User and not to a sprite; except in adventure games. In adventure games, anything could happen for a sprite in the game world if they reboot. If he'd stayed normal and kept his AI hack on, the game would register him as one of them.


End file.
